“My friend’s mom would put the back seats in her SUV down and let us roll around while she made sharp turns.”

“My dad took me into smoky bars and had me play bartender during work parties…when I was five.”

“My dad invented a game called ‘crack the coconut’ for when my siblings were fighting. He’d have them crawl at each other as fast as they could until they hit their heads together. According to him, it was great for conflict resolution.”

“My mom used to leave me alone in the apartment as an infant while she walked the dog around the block, saying, ‘Well, it’s not like you could go anywhere.'”

“When I was an infant, we once stayed in a hotel that didn’t have a crib, so my parents made one for me…out of pillows. They woke up to find my head wedged between the pillows, and instead of checking if I was alive, my mom took a picture.”